


We're Making Our Own Way

by wayward_angels_club



Series: The Things We Fix Along The Way [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: 15x20 Significantly altered, Happiness all around, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Season 15 Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:34:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28436973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wayward_angels_club/pseuds/wayward_angels_club
Summary: Post-series epilogue of sorts, a few final plot points dealt with and smoothed up. A worthy ending for our beloved characters and a future to look forward to.It's kind of necessary to read at least part two to understand this part but if you vibe with mild confusion while reading skip that and just start reading this.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester
Series: The Things We Fix Along The Way [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2041545
Kudos: 10





	We're Making Our Own Way

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't perfect but it is a hell of a lot closer to my perfect ending than anything we were given in the show.
> 
> Because of the extended timeline of the last two episodes in this coda/fix-it, this part takes place in the future from where we are now, say about June/July of 2021.

The sun just barely starts to bake into his shirt on the short walk back from the shore. Sam and Eileen have their little spot saved sitting close together on the blanket under one of their many beach umbrellas; Miracle tucked in at Sam’s side panting away looking content as ever. 

Eileen’s not showing yet but soon enough his niece or nephew is going to make their presence known for the family and the world to look at.

It's the tail end of the summer, several months since everything went back to normal. They were some of the speediest months of Dean’s life, a sentiment that Cas agrees with, newly human still he's not entirely used to the way time seems to slip away.

Even though there was a big moment of things righting themselves, in their little world things have been fitting into place more and more over the months.

Heaven became all that it always should have been thanks to Jack. Jack who is back to being a Nephilim instead of actually God because he’s three and deserves a chance to be normal—or as normal as you can be with archangel grace making up half of your being.

It was a tense moment when Jack split Amara from his being a couple months back. No one really knew if she was going to kill them all instantly the moment she regained autonomy after the stunt they pulled in an attempt to kill her forever. But by some chance, she was understanding—if upset—but after viewing humanity through the eyes of her nephew it took only a little convincing before she took up the mantle of God. With both light and darkness in her, she’s in harmony and the remaining angels have gotten used to the new manager up there.

Dean officially gave up hunting a few weeks ago when he saw that the fire station in Lebanon was looking for volunteer to hire firefighters. He’d wanted to do it since that dream, since being reminded of how easy it is to die on a hunt, but there hadn't been anything that came along that tempted him enough to finally do it.

Signing that form though that was something special. Something new and exciting and Cas stood right beside him looking for all the world like the proudest partner that’s ever existed.

He grabs a beer from the cooler and takes a seat in one of the lawn chairs remembering the party they threw after the dust settled. Smiling when he recalls how Donna and Jody had shown up hand in hand a look on both their faces that just screamed ‘try me’. Smiling even more thinking about when Claire and Jack met and the huge hugs he dolled out to the entire clan.

It was a dumb party filled with too much booze—hunters can fucking drink, and they’re competitive about it too—and too loud music and just the perfect amount of too much laughter.

Hunters from all over came round for the gathering and if Dean and Cas took Jesse and Cesar aside for some more tips about settling down with a hunter, well Sam was the only one allowed to say anything about anything on that.

Dean cooked up a spread and a half for the overnight guests, which were most of the attendees, burning his fingers on the toast every time the next batch of slices popped up ready to be buttered. Cas stood at his side helping where he could, serving each person that made their way into the kitchen rumpled and hungover and crabby as hell; and he did it all with a huge smile on his face.

Somewhere along the line, Dean had taken to doing the job Bobby used to excel at. And along with Sam, they’ve almost finished compiling lore into a shareable file, perfect for easy searching thanks to keyword filtering. Together they are preparing the next generation of hunters for all that may lay ahead of them and helping the older generation have an easier go of things. Everyone around them pitches in with lore they have stored away, hunters from all over the continent, hell multiple continents, have offered to loan them their tomes for transcription.

They are taking what the Men of Letters started centuries ago and bringing it into the modern age. And making it accessible to all. He, Sam, and Eileen are the only legacies that are for sure alive, and they are determined to make the super-secret boys club that was the Men of Letters open to all.

Years ago when they first found the bunker Dean was convinced that they would never be able to catalogue everything the Men of Letters had stored in the fuck ton of storerooms but bit by bit everything found itself with a label. And every label ended up in the file ready to be searched for (and reverse searched for) and found by a hunter who needed it.

They’ve opened the bunker itself up as a catch-all place to stay. Hunters stop in on their way home from hunts. Read up on lore to catch the signs of a Shtriga or a Tulpa, or any manner of other more obscure monsters, faster next time around. It’s become a makeshift Roadhouse, a place to sleep or socialize. Or to just catch a movie with some of the only people who can really understand the shit any of them have seen.

Dean laments one night when Sam points out that they’ve made a hunter network like the Brits had tried to do a few years prior; just like what they’d managed to do with the hunters from apocalypse world but this time with experienced hunters. He smiles though and reminds Sam that they did it their way, the only way it would work, made by people who understood the life, the risks, the truth of killing monsters and how it’s not just black and white; true hunters that don't need the constant leadership like last time and that that's why it’s working.

Dean had shown Cas the tree one afternoon. The sun slipping away behind the trees around them, the wind picking up against their turned-up collars. Cas had looked at it for a while in silence, so long in fact that Dean was beginning to worry that he hated it and was trying to let Dean down in a gentle way but eventually he snuck his arm around Dean’s waist and laid a kiss down on Dean’s cheek before turning his head to kiss him properly. Neither knew what to do with the tree really, that is until Cas grabbed the knife from his back pocket and carved a couple other characters into the bark. Dean laughed, bent backwards at the waist, face turned skyward when Cas revealed a lovely sign that read: Castiel’s Bees, with an arrow pointing up to the hive. They agreed through gut pinching laughter that that was the only way to redeem the tree. Cas went back a few days later and planted a collection of flowers at the tree’s base for his bees, and Dean fell a little more in love with him when he came back with smudges of dirt along his arms and the brightest smile on his face. He’s started a garden since then and now a selection of Sam’s rabbit food comes straight from their ‘yard’.

Sam sits down beside him in the chairs, knocking him out of his thoughts, and grabs himself a beer. They clink the necks together just because they can. Because they have things to toast to that don’t even need to be said out loud because of how sure they are about them.

“Did I hear you two talking about baby names earlier?” Dean asks.

“That you did. We’re deciding between Bobby and Charlie with Maura as a middle name if it's a girl.” Dean gives him a quizzical look. “It was Eileen's mother’s name. But because Eileen doesn't want to know what we are having we are picking names that fit whatever the kid ends up being.”

“Bobby might smack you if you end up naming your kid after him,” Dean says to avoid falling into the sappy ass emotions bubbly around in his chest at the sentiment of the names they're choosing between.

“Ya well, heaven’s a long ways away for me. I might even end up looking forward to it.”

“Speaking of long ways off, are you still thinking about going back to school?” Even though Sam was still hunting sporadically he was thinking of temporary retirement because of what the future would hold for him. And with that thought came the question of ‘what’s next?’.

“I don’t know, with the baby on the way it's not like things are going to get less expensive any time soon. Also pretty much all of us are legally dead, remember? That's why Eileen and I couldn't get legally married. It’s kind of hard to apply for financial aid when you are supposed to be six feet under and ten years gone.”

“You do make a valid point. But you know, you deserve to have that chance again if it's what you want. A life away from constant hunting. This kind of life, calm, easy. We both do.” Sam gives a small nod of agreement before turning to look out at the water. Dean knows it’s been some time since Sam’s wanted to actually go back to the life he had started before he was dragged back into hunting but even still, he felt it right to at least mention it.

They both sit in comfortable silence for a bit, thinking, living, just  _ enjoying _ what they are doing.

“So, is it like you always pictured it?” Sam pipes up, a laugh apparent in his voice. “Retirement, toes in the sand, Hawaiian shirts and all that.”

He thinks about everything that's happened, everything they lost and suffered through and gained and all the people they helped. He thinks about Jack and his college pamphlets sitting on his desk. Sam and Eileen and their apartment hunting they don’t think he knows about. Cas and all his— _ Cas-ness _ . His cold toes in the mornings and his ‘bad’ habit of stealing Dean’s clothes—especially to sleep in. How he  _ hates _ the taste but loves the smell of coffee but he chokes it down because he needs about as much as Dean does to be functional. The way he always heavily seasons his food because ‘it’s so much more than molecules’ now. How he loves cheesy rom-coms and staged home improvement shows because why not indulge in them. The way he’s absolutely atrocious to take care of when he’s sick. How he hopes to maybe find a job where he’s helping people again—he mentioned a carpentry apprenticeship working for a non-profit that gave volunteer help to community outreach projects, which Dean thought was a great idea—and finding purpose in that work, his want to do all the things that humans do that he never got to before.

He thinks about his family, the odds and ends and far-reaching branches, the ones up in heaven, the one down in hell ruling it as only a Queen can—rebellion squashed under her perfectly manicured thumb thanks in part to some demon named Zach that had Cas and Jack’s interest piqued when he was mentioned. All their lost brothers and sisters, friends and family. And his little family, the one right in front of him.

He smiles at Cas as he turns around and sends him a wink before pushing Jack off the dock, indignant squawks coming from the kid who finally gets to be a kid. He laughs along with the rest of them before he takes a deep breath of the fresh air, just heavy enough with heat to make the cool water worth it whenever he does decide to take a swim. He looks around at the lot of them before settling his eyes on his brother.

“Nah… it’s better.”

**Author's Note:**

> Well, there you go!!
> 
> I have at least two more parts planned for this series but no definitive timeline on posting them, they are both being written now though. Still sorry about that
> 
> This however does mark the end of the fix-it component of this series, both of the upcoming fics focus on other ideas I would have liked to see in the show but not focus on fixing or tweaking anything from the canon events of the show.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed my new ending and the lives that TFW 2.0 + family has in store for them❤❤


End file.
